China's 'internet hostesses' make up to $160,000 a year by flirting in online chatrooms

Online hostess Xianggong
checks her makeup before she gives a live broadcast in her
bedroom in Beijing.Jason
Lee/Reuters

In China's online hostessing world, men
find virtual company and the women can find riches.

Student Xiao Yue, 21, spends four hours most days chatting
online with fans who shower her with virtual roses and other
presents.

She is one of more than 10,000 hostesses on the internet site
bobo.com, a live broadcasting web platform where anyone can
record themselves singing, playing piano, dancing or just
chatting.

The hostesses are predominantly singers, playing to an audience
that is 90 percent male, and mostly between the ages of 20 and
35. Acting cute is okay. Anything explicitly sexual is not.

Xiao Yue’s specialty is to sajiao – a very Chinese type of
flirting characterized by the woman acting in a cutesy childlike
manner and speaking in a whiny voice. She puts on little dance
mime routines one minute, seductively eats strawberries the next.

In return, users show their appreciation by sending her virtual
gifts, which can be worth as much as thousands of yuan.

A digital gift is seen on
the screen, which was bought and presented by a fan, as online
hostess Xianggong gives a live broadcast in
Beijing.Jason
Lee/Reuters

She admits many who have not used the service may find it hard to
understand.

"We don’t know each other but as time goes on, there's this
indescribable feeling. They really support you, and their support
improves your self-esteem... Perhaps people who don’t normally
use this service won’t be able to understand the feeling."

For Zhu Peihua, who says he doesn’t have enough money to
get a girlfriend, it’s all about companionship.

"After finishing work, except for watching TV, films or just
lying in bed, playing computer games and so on, there isn’t a
real person talking to you. But with this... this is a real
person. You can interact with them. I have some one who will talk
to me."

A fan watches Sun Xiaohou
singing on a mobile phone.Jason
Lee/Reuters

Strict rules about what you can and cannot do

Xiao Yue makes anything between a few thousand and more
than ten thousand yuan ($1,600) a month getting users like Zhu to
send the gifts. That pales in comparison with the more than a
million yuan ($161,400) given to one hostess on the platform - a
record so far.

Xiao Yue says most of her friends don’t know about her
work, as in the eyes of many the sites are still dominated by
borderline erotic content. But following a series of
anti-pornography crackdowns over the past few years, many hostess
services have cleaned up their acts.Online hostess Xianggong
checks her mobile phone as she sits on her bed after a live
broadcast in Beijing, February 10, 2015.Jason Lee/Reuters

One hostess, Xianggong, relaxed with her mother after a
live broadcast in her Beijing bedroom.

"We have very strict rules for the users. We have very clear
rules about what you can do and what you cannot do," said Zuo
Ming, head of operations at bobo.com.

In total there are about 50 internet companies in China
running video chat services. The platforms typically take between
50 and 70 percent of the money donated by users.

Wang Dong, a fan of online
hostess Siqi, looks at a cartoon portrait of her, at home in
Beijing.Jason
Lee/Reuters

For some fans, what can start as a diversion can turn into an
obsession.

Wang Dong, 32, began watching the broadcasts when he
started working for bobo as a graphic designer. He said the
content left him cold at first, but he soon found himself
infatuated with one hostess.

"She had such a sweet smile... Every now and again she had this
kind of feeling of sincerity, so I began watching her broadcasts
every day."Online hostess Sun Xiaohou
smiles as she gives a live broadcast in Beijing April 4,
2015.Jason
Lee/Reuters

Wang became so obsessed, he began using his spare time to design
personalized virtual gifts for her. He even helped her make a
professional music video and got to meet her in real life, but a
non-virtual relationship never blossomed.

"We’re in contact occasionally... But I'm not as obsessed.
Perhaps it's because I feel reality is better after all."